October 19, 2009

Peerless Systems PRLS

I posted on Peerless Systems PRLS really quickly on Thursday after glancing over a couple things. I just wanted to get it out there quickly for whoever might have been interested. Looking more closely there are some more good things here along with the stability in cash. Activist investor Timothy Brog who I had the pleasure of speaking with briefly has gotten on the board of directors as chairman. No doubt, the company is now moving in a better direction. In 2008 they sold about all of their intellectual property to Kyocera-Mita Corporation for a pre-tax gain of $32.9 million along with 38 employees. They have a lot of cash to work with to get value out of the company be it an acquisition or some other means. There definitely looks like there is upside to the stock.Background from 10Q"The technology we license has addressed the worldwide market for printers (21-69 pages per minute) and multifunction printers (“MFP”) (21-110 pages per minute). This market has been consolidating, and the demand for the technology offered by us declined throughout fiscal years 2009 and 2008.

The document imaging industry has changed. Lower cost of development and production overseas increasing complexity of imaging requirements has resulted in us not being able to effectively compete in this environment. As a result, we sold our intellectual property and transferred 38 of our engineers and support personnel to KMC. Although as a part of the transaction we have retained the right, subject to certain restrictions, to continue licensing and supporting the imaging technology that we had previously developed and to continue to license third party imaging technologies. We are currently pursuing other potential investment opportunities. The strategy calls for aligning our cost structure with our current and projected revenue streams, maximizing the value of our licensed back technologies and expanding our business through investment opportunities.

Our contract with Adobe expires on March 31, 2010. We have had discussions with them to either extend the contract or enter into a different agreement with them. Our discussions have not resulted in an agreement. In order to maximize the value of our Intellectual Property and relationships with our clients, we are exploring how to transition our customer base that currently utilizes Adobe technology to another technology provider."